| Matter of Morgan P. |
| 2009 NY Slip Op 02092 [60 AD3d 1362] |
| March 20, 2009 |
| Appellate Division, Fourth Department |
| In the Matter of Morgan P., an Infant. Erie County Department ofSocial Services, Respondent; Christina P., Appellant. |
—[*1] Joseph T. Jarzembek, Buffalo, for petitioner-respondent. Michele A. Brown, Law Guardian, Buffalo, for Morgan P.
Appeal from an order of the Family Court, Erie County (Michael F. Griffith, J.), enteredDecember 28, 2007 in a proceeding pursuant to Family Court Act article 10. The order, interalia, adjudged that the subject child is a neglected child.
It is hereby ordered that the order so appealed from is unanimously affirmed without costs.
Memorandum: Respondent mother contends that Family Court erred in finding that sheneglected her daughter. We note at the outset that, although the appeal was improperly takenfrom Family Court's initial order with respect to custody rather than the subsequent order offact-finding and disposition, we exercise our discretion to treat the notice of appeal as valid anddeem the appeal as taken from the subsequent order (see Matter of Danielle S. v Larry R.S., 41 AD3d 1188 [2007];see also CPLR 5520 [c]). We conclude that petitioner established by a preponderance ofthe evidence that the mother failed to "exercise a minimum degree of care in providing the childwith proper supervision or guardianship" (Nicholson v Scoppetta, 3 NY3d 357, 368 [2004]). Petitionerestablished that the mother "coached" the child to allege that the child was sexually abused byher grandfather and thus repeatedly subjected the child to unnecessary medical examinations andextreme anxiety based upon those unfounded allegations of sexual abuse (see generally Matter of Amanda B. vAnthony B., 13 AD3d 1126, 1127 [2004]). Present—Martoche, J.P., Centra,Carni and Gorski, JJ.